Companies spend big bucks to advertise during the Super Bowl, but few invested in LGBTQ representation this year, according to GLAAD’s Visibility Project.
The media advocacy organization reported that among the commercials during the big game on Sunday, just 4 explicitly featured LGBTQ people — Rakuten (Christian Siriano), GM x Netflix (Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski), Google Pixel (Doja Cat) and Doritos (Elton John) — while the NFL’s own halftime spot, “Run With It,” included Billie Jean King.

In all cases, the celebrities appeared in brief cameos and the spots did not include “LGBTQ storytelling,” as GLAAD put it. (McDonald’s, however, did air pre-Super Bowl spot that featured a queer and non-celebrity couple.)

“It’s unfortunate that LGBTQ-inclusive advertising was not more prevalent during the Super Bowl this year,” GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement.

“Though we saw a similar quantity of representation to 2022, there was a clear lack of intersectional representation. At a time when LGBTQ rights are being put in jeopardy through harmful legislation across the country, we call on brands to leverage the audience reach and cultural impact of an event like the Super Bowl to bring LGBTQ people and issues into the mainstream conversation.”

Gay Directors, Gay Films? By Emanuel Levy (Columbia University Press, August 2015).

Super Bowl LVII’s “minimal” LGBTQ representation matched 2022 and 2021’s total of 4 LGBTQ-inclusive spots each.

Although last year, NFL employee Maureen Raisch, a trans artist, designed the Super Bowl logo, the Los Angeles Rams had a record-high of five out gay cheerleaders, and deaf actress Sandra Mae Frank wore a Progress Pride pin while singing the national anthem and “America the Beautiful” on the field. GLAAD reported that there were at least 11 LGBTQ-inclusive ads that aired during the 2020 Super Bowl.

On Wednesday before this year’s game, GLAAD partnered with the league for A Night of Pride, hosted by Lance Bass and attended by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell. The event, held at Phoenix’s Sheraton Downtown, featured two panel discussions sponsored by Smirnoff and Yahoo!, respectively: Coming Out as an LGBTQ Corporate Ally, featuring executives from Diageo, the NFL, Hello Sunshine and Frito-Lay, and LGBTQ NFL Experience, featuring former NFL defensive end R.K. Russell (the league’s first active player to come out as bisexual), Carolina Panthers dancer Justine Lindsay (the league’s first out trans cheerleader) and Hampton defensive back Byron Perkins (the first HBCU player to come out as gay).